Overview
- Which? links its push to the scale of obesity, noting 64% of adults in England are overweight or living with obesity and the NHS faces costs exceeding £11 billion a year.
- Research tracking more than 500 shoppers found 33% check the nutrition panel first and 47% find it easy to understand, with many wanting larger, more prominent traffic-light displays and clearer serving sizes.
- The traffic-light scheme introduced in 2013 remains voluntary and inconsistently used, with some products lacking colour-coding or omitting the label entirely.
- Which? proposes a mandatory, standardised format with enforcement and oversight by the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland to boost trust and consistency.
- The Department of Health and Social Care says a modernised nutrient scoring system is being introduced alongside restrictions on junk-food advertising, limits on volume price promotions and mandatory healthy-sales reporting, while retailers insist they already lead on labelling.